Getting Out of Harm's Way

We arrived back Virginia Beach on Sunday afternoon.  We got set up at the Ocean Pines military campground and then went over to see the kids.  Jon and Kelly and the boys were returning from a long weekend at the lake and they arrived in the late afternoon.

Wow!  We were gone 9 weeks and those little boys have changed so much!  They talk more and engage even more.  It is amazing.  We got to play with them on Sunday afternoon and then go see them all day Monday.

But the hurricane was building up and we had to come up with an evacuation plan of our own.  We called around and decided the best escape route was north to the D.C. area.  We called ahead to the Greenville Farm Campground in Haymarket, VA.

The D.C. area doesn't have too many great options for RVing (great meaning affordable, great campground and close to the city), but we've stay there and were able to snag a reservation.  We are about 30 minutes away from Fairfax and about 45 minutes from downtown D.C.

The weather reports were looking grim and the military campground had warned us we may have to evacuate.  We didn't wait for them to make up their mind and departed on Tuesday morning.  The drive to Fredericksburg on I-95 and then over to Highway 17 to Haymarket was actually a pleasant drive.  We expected heavier traffic but it was very manageable.

We got to the campground and were told we'd have to spend a night in partial hookups, then could move to full hookups.  So that is what we did.

Partial hookups were water and 30 amp service in the woods.  That meant no TV but we survived.

The next day moved to our more open site with full-hookups and our DirecTV had no problems connecting.

While here, we contacted friends Jeff and Tiffany.  Jeff and I met with a few of his other buddies on Tuesday night while Pam and Tiffany watched a Nationals baseball game and got caught up.  We are going to be able to spend some time tomorrow with son Adam and daughter-in-law Melissa (who live in Fairfax) and are looking forward to that!

We are glad the hurricane did not continue on its initial projected path and are safe.  Jon and Kelly in Virginia Beach got the all clear word earlier this evening.  They were never in an evacuation zone but parts of the city were.

Our prayers continue for the people in its path.  Even though the initial contact with landfall has been less than expected, there has still been plenty of devastation and it is not over yet.

I hope you and yours are safe!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Roadrunner Camping in the Cold Weather

We are in very cold weather right now as are many of you.  Three nights ago the temperature got down to 14 degrees.  Right now in the early morning it is 23 degrees.  But the good news is that we are doing fine and are warm in the Roadrunner.

We are currently at Cedars of Lebanon State Park not far from Murfreesboro, TN.  We will be here until Sunday morning and go to Maynardville, TN for Thanksgiving.

But back to how we have handled the cold cold weather and some things we have done to get ready for it.  The issue is freezing weather.  We need to be prepared when it gets below 32 degrees.

Attitude
First thing we did we face the fact we are not going to be in Florida during the winter and get used to it.  We adjusted our mind and accepted it.  And we don't complain about the cold weather.  No one likes whiners and 200 million Americans are in very cold weather right now.  And so are we.

Heaters
One thing we did was to re-evalutate our heaters in the motor home:

• Gas/propane furnace heater.  We made sure we filled up the propane tank last week at the Holiday Trav-L-Park campground outside of Chattanooga.  
  
• Electric ceramic heaters.  We have two space ceramic heaters and put them is use during the day.  We have to monitor things so we don't have them both turned on plus the micro wave etc. We don't want to pop a circuit breaker.
• Space heater.  Not sure what to call this but it also is electric, just not a ceramic heater.
  

We felt we needed to get this Soleil heater heater at Lowe's.  We set  it a certain degree temperature during the night and have some confidence it would go on and off properly.

Water
A major concern is freezing water and broken water lines.  Its not something we want to deal with. To make sure that didn't happen we:

• Filled our water tank to 80+ percent.  The more water in the tank makes it easier to keep it from freezing.
• Reeled in the water hoses and drained the water.  We just keep the water pump turned on.  (Note:  if you are an earlier rise, you may want to fill the coffee pot the night before so you don't wake anyone up.)

• When the tank gets below 50 percent wind out the hose, hook it up and refill refill the clear water tank.  We wait until the middle of the day when it warms up.  It is going to get below freezing most every night, we again empty the hose, drain it and rewind it on the reel.
• We also hooked up two mechanics lights (50 watt) and placed them in the wet bay and keep them turned on all day.  That small amount of extra heat helps keep the pipes and tank from freezing.
  

Sewer Hose

• We don't have hook ups at our site at the State Park, but even if we did, we wouldn't bring out the sewer hose and hook it up when its freezing.  We keep it stowed. We will hook it up and use it to empty the tanks in a few days when we get ready to leave this campground.

Ceiling Fans/Skylights

• We have two ceiling fans that having an outside opening in the roof:  one in the living room and one in the bathroom.  In cold weather we 'plug' the holes with tight fitting foam cushion fillers that are made especially for that purpose.

• The skylight above the shower also gets plugged up with a similar tight fitting cushion.

Clothing

• Layers layers layers.  Inside we both wear an assortment of long sleeve tee shirts, sweat shirts, fleece sweat pants, wool socks etc.  If my neck is warm, I am usually fine, so I wear mock turtle necks or zip up my light fleece jacket.
• Afghans/comforters.  Always nice to have one laying around when we read or watch TV.
• Hats/gloves.  Need to pull out the gloves and baseball cap or stocking cap. Those $1 pair of knit gloves work great so I have a few pairs to those.  A scarf is a good idea too.

Curtains/Shades

• We got the day night and black out shades mainly for the direct sunlight on the windshield.  The currents we had at the time weren't cutting it.  But these two kinds of shades deflect the hot summer sunlight.  They also serve to block some of the cold air off the glass windows in the cold weather.  After the sun goes down, we pull the shades, even though it is not completely dark outside.  It does help keep some of the warm air inside.

Snow

• I really don't want to think about that too much, but in case that happens, we will need to keep our toppers over our slide outs cleaned off so they don't sag from the weight or melt and re-freeze.
• We also want to keep the heater/air conditioner units free from any snow as much as we can.  The main thing here is getting on top of the RV and being very careful so one doesn't slip and fall or worse..

How We Have Done So Far:

So far so good.  The gas furnace heater in the front worked great the first night but stopped mid morning the day after we got here.  We left it alone for a day and tried turning it on again when it wasn't so completely cold and it has worked fine ever since then.

No freezing pipes or clear water tank.  We find ourselves adjusting a little bit with a sweat shirt or a blanket if we are sitting around watching TV but we would be doing that at our old house too, even by the fire place.

That's about how it's going at the moment and really its not bad at all.  There are thousands and thousands of people living in mobile homes and RVs in the winter time, I've just never met them.  So I don't know exactly what they do to keep warm.

But this is what we are doing.  Hope you are enjoying your weather, wherever you are and are warm!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Bike Riding Near Seal Beach

It has been one great and beautiful day after another, so I have been riding my bike the last few days. One thing that make for a great camping place for me is the accessibility to bike trails.  That is one thing I like about this area.  There are a lot of bikes, bike riders and bike trails!

It has been a while since I have ridden my bike regularly, so I tried to stretch and limber up a bit.  Then off I went.  This one was about 12.25 miles which was a good length for me then.

It was great to get going again and I decided on another route, this time to go over toward Long Beach to the Queen Mary area.

The bike trail took me onto the beach.

This was my longest ride in a while at 20.51 miles.

Another day, I came across a bike path along Seal Beach then up along the San Gabriel River.

This route took me 11.55 miles.

After this one I felt like I am getting into a little bit better shape? (It is all relative...)  In fact, I had a lot of feelings -- like soreness, aches, etc.  But the ones I like are ones where my lungs feel deeper and I some consistency in getting my heart rate going during the workout.

Then yesterday, I went out from Seal Beach, through Sunset Beach toward Huntington Beach and back again.

I wanted to go over 15 miles and gauged my turn-around point so I could meet that goal.  Ended up at 15.44 mi.  (I use MapMyRide+ app to log my workouts.)

I expected it to be pretty empty on the bike ways and beaches yesterday but it was quite different.  I counted over 100 cyclists on the road before I quit counting.

There were lots of folks on the beaches and more surfers than I have ever seen in my life.  But then I grew up in Santa Fe.  Not many surfers there.

We are liking it here in Southern California.  Hope your New Year has started out well.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...

Yellowstone and Old Faithful

We couldn't wait to see Yellowstone.  We are camped at Henry's Lake State Park which is about 25 miles from West Yellowstone, MT which is the location of the West Entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone is the oldest of the National Parks in the U.S.  It was made so when established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872.  It is primarily in the state of Montana but also extends into both Idaho and Wyoming.

What impressed me initially was the great highway going through the park.  I had the mental image that the road through the park was old, slow and winding.  I was pleasantly surprised it is in great shape and fairly wide in spots.  In addition to a number of pullouts and observation points, the road is wide enough in many places to pull over while other traffic passes.

The flagship of the nation's oldest park is Old Faithful and we made our way to it for a look at the spectacle.  There is a great Visitor's Center there with plenty of parking, and we stopped and took a look around.  Then we went outside to view the Geyser.  We had about 20 minutes before the next eruption.  We waited and waited and then…

It was an overcast day but it was still beautiful.  From the West Entrance we stopped at a number of observations points to take some pictures along the Madison River.

I took a lot of pictures of the pristine valley by the river.

The soggy weather probably was the reason it was not real busy.  This time of year it is usually packed.

From there we continued our drive and made a few stops in the direction of West Thumb Geyser Basin along Yellowstone River.

We found an RV park at Fishing Bridge and took a drive through it to check it out.

The spaces look a little tight but there were a few big rigs in there.  And quite a few empty spots.  We decided we like where we are (20 miles away from the park entrance).  Sometimes the road gets busy when wildlife want to share the road.  When I see the big rigs in the park, I am glad we are in our little Honda.

There are more pictures from our time at Yellowstone.  We will save that for another post.  We are thoroughly enjoying our time here.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  And thanks for our comments.  We always appreciate those!

Until next time...

At the Habitat Work Site

We spent another couple of days working at the Habitat for Humanity this week at the construction site not far from where we are staying.

You never know what is going to go on each day which makes it interesting.  About 6:30 AM we start forming up (circle up) and one of the leaders goes over the main tasks for the day.  Usually a couple of people buddy up and go off to an assignment.

Since we volunteer Tuesday and Thursday we don't often do the same thing two days in a row.  And we see definite progress on things every time we show up.  And we get to see all kinds of different tasks being done.
Yesterday as I was going back and forth getting tools and such, I saw a load of 4' x 12' sheets of wallboard get delivered.

These two guys made quick work of the heavy sheetrock with the lift!
And the guys working on the sidewalks and driveways were real pros too!

Tuesday Pam got a staple gun and worked on the outside of a couple of houses finishing up the 'mesh'.  The chicken wire/mesh can't be hanging loosely on the house or the stucco won't go on correctly.  I worked inside with Charlie and we spent the day hanging closet doors.

Yesterday we got a new assignment and we cleaned the concrete floors on one house.  After a while Pat joined us and worked with us the rest of the day. These particular floors are going to be finished concrete.  Sometimes we have seen laminated wood and carpet put or linoleum tiles -- but these floors are going to be polished concrete.

So we worked on getting them cleaned and scrubbed.  After they are scrubbed and cleaned with the buffer (with a scouring pad on the bottom), they are mopped a few times.  Then sealers and other treatments are put on before they are buffed out and finished.

I spent the whole day scraping paint off the floor (sometimes grinding it and other droppings out) then Pam and Pat went slowly over the floor.  Pam and Pat were mainly on the buffer and the wet vac while I used the 7" grinder and went over each room inch by inch.

Later in the morning I interrupted the ladies for another photo.

Then before we left for the day, another one with the ladies with hats on that they traded.

Pat is a special lady. She and her husband left New York and New Jersey and they have lived in Tucson for over ten years.  While her husband volunteers as researcher at the University of Arizona, she spends her days at Habitat.  She does a lot of different things, but she is the 'face' of Habitat in many ways.   She is a regular at Habitat and the first person new volunteers meet.  She gets everyone signed in and set up with a name tag and hard hat and answers all of kinds of questions.  This affiliate has over 300 volunteers a week!

Pat is a friendly, smiling and giving person.  And she works hard.  She is always moving about helping with this and that and doesn't waste time.  And she enjoys it and helps everyone else around her enjoy it.  I was working with Charlie and he told her what a great job she does.  She must hear that a lot but she takes it in stride -- she is a very humble person and everybody's friend.

It rained and blew hard on Monday but then it got right back to nice weather - high 70's.  We have been here almost a month and had one day that wasn't all sunshine.  That's another reason we like Tucson!

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time ~

On to Arizona!

Please welcome our newest Followers!

Deborah and Phil

Red

Click on their blogs and see what:  
- Deb and Phil are going through getting ready to launch in the RV lifestyle; and
- Red's thoughts as a truck driver.
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Now for a quick recap since our last post:
Before we left Alpine, TX we made an evening trip to McDonald Observatory.

Are we glad we did.  We got their in time for two programs and ended up under the starts and constellations and got to look through a couple of cool telescopes.

Then is was Westward Ho! and we went through El Paso (where we picked up a chip in the windsheild) and on to Deming, NM.  We gained an hour and were making good time so we decided to continue to Benson Arizona and the Escapees Saguaro SKP Co-Op park.

We arrived mid afternoon but they only had overflow sites.  That was fine with us and we took one and looked around.
The clubhouse is among the bigger ones we have seen.

As an SKP Co-Op, many campers own their sites.  They are good sized lots and though they are different they are all very well maintained.

Before we checked in for a campsite, we decided to call Apache Flats at Fort Huachuca. They had an opening so decided to move on and stay in Sierra Vista, AZ for a few days.

The sites were good-sized and the scenery was great.  They even had a workout center/gym in the campground.

Our second night there, we even got some snow!

But it didn't last long and the next day we went to Bisbee and Tombstone for day trips.  Both have a lot of history back to the 1880's.  Today Bisbee is a tourist town now with reminders of the mining community it once was.

We had a picnic lunch there and headed over to Tombstone which was about 26 miles away.

We stopped at Boothill Cemetery which was interesting.

While we were at Fort Huachuca, we went back to Tombstone (only 23 miles away) and we joined some new friends for Karaoke Night at Big Nose Kate's Saloon.

It was a memorable way to celebrate our 32nd anniversary!

Whew!  That was a lot of catch up, but after this post, there will be more times and days of our lives in Tucson to follow...  We intend to be here for the next couple of months.

Thanks for viewing this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!

A 2010 Christmas To Remember

First, a big THANK YOU to our newest Followers:

Rene' and Jeanette

Roxie and Annie

Britta

Ellie Great

Janie

Please take a look at their blogs/websites by clicking on their name

It was a great Christmas for us here in Virginia!  We had a momentous time with our Habitat friends last Wednesday (more in another post) that got the vacation/holiday time-off mood going.  I love the time of the year when everyone says 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy Holidays'.  There is just something special about people wishing everyone well.  It is infectious.  Kind of like smiling...when you smile, other people smile back.

So we had a nice time at Habitat and Adam arrived at Kelly's house in Norfolk on Thursday.  They came out to the campground and we had a nice dinner at Pam's Roadrunner Kitchen along with a couple of Kelly's friends (Nikos and Josh) who stopped by.

Then we went down to the Holiday Light display on the Boardwalk and ran into a massive traffic jam.  That was a bad idea.  We settled for some ice cream at Chick Filet.  That was a good idea.  Something wonderful about a brownie ala mode...

On Christmas Eve Day we got together again and went to the Christmas Eve service.   We went over to Niko's and Rickie's house and watched a movie and then came home to bed at a decent hour.

On Christmas, we left the campground and got to Kelly's house about 8:45 am.

Then we had one of the most memorable Christmas dinners in recent history.  One of the guys who has worked at Starbucks for a long time invited us over for a pot luck lunch.

It was a really good idea.  Lots of food, friends and fellowship.  There was food galore:  turkey, ham, dressing, potatoes, green bean casserole, raspberry pie, etc..

After we ate we all sat and chatted a while.  We had about 20 people and there must have been another 10 who took the offer for a free Christmas dinner.

Next, we went back to the campground and hung around for the rest of the day.  Then the snow started.

And it kept coming.  Kelly and Adam made it back to her place before it got too bad.  And then the day after Christmas they drove over from Norfolk in Adam's Pathfinder.  That was a little dicey.  And it snowed some more.  We even went down to the beach to get some pictures.

 I changed the lens settings and we had a blue Christmas too...

And I monitored the tanks and had to dump the black and grey but it was no problem.

The white beaches of Florida Virginia

The drifts were pretty deep at times.  I would have never in a million years expected us to be in snow 7 or 8 inches deep in the Roadrunner!  Yet we were and just enjoyed it.  We learned how to keep warm with our 30 amp campsite.  

Monday came and went and the roads in the Virginia Beach area were a mess.  We took Kelly over to her house and the main highways were mostly clear but still had some ice and snow.  Meanwhile, Adam drove back to Brooklyn and made it the whole way safely.

We cleared off her porch and returned to our campsite while it was still warm and before it got cold for the night.

We missed our departure day (we had planned on leaving Virginia Beach on Monday) and watched the snow melt a lot.  We ventured out and returned a Christmas gift and were encouraged by how much the snow and ice had melted off the roads.  The sun was out all day and it got up to 40 degrees.

Pam did a last load of laundry and then we took a short walk on the beach.

We look forward to hearing from you and want to thank the many folks who have posted comments over the past few days.  It was very nice to hear from you.

Thank you for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles and hope you are enjoying the holidays.  Happy New Year!